Benjamin Franklin: The Founding Father Gets His Start
Benjamin Franklin: The Founding Father Gets His Start
Born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin was the son of Josiah Franklin, a candle and soap maker who hailed from England, and Abiah Folger, Josiah’s second wife. The family was not a wealthy one; Franklin was allowed to attend grammar school for just two years until he was 10 because it was too expensive. Although he was given some private writing and math lessons and continued to read voraciously on his own, Franklin never graduated from school.
At the age of 13, Franklin’s father sent him to apprentice for his older brother James, who was a printer and who had, at the age of 15, created the first independent newspaper in the colonies, called the New England Courant. Here, Franklin helped to compose pamphlets, set up type, sell the paper on the streets and perform other printer-related duties. Franklin also began writing columns under the pseudonym ‘Mrs. Silence Dogood’, who he fabricated to be a middle-aged widow. Dogood was an immediate hit with her writings about the problems and social conditions of women, but when James found out it was actually his younger brother writing her column, he was furious. As a result of James’ ensuing harassment and beatings, Franklin became a fugitive and ran away from his family in 1723.
Franklin tried his luck as a printer both in New York and New Jersey, but to no avail. He then moved to Philadelphia, where he did manage to find a job with a printer. But, Franklin was unsatisfied with his prospects there. After a brief stint at a printer’s shop in London, England, Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726. Four years and much borrowed money later, he had finally set up his own printing house. He began to publish a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette, in which he would regularly give himself space to comment on the most pressing social issues of the time. He cultivated an image of himself as an intellectual and a productive young man and his writings were the beginning of what would earn Franklin significant social respect.
The Pennsylvania Gazette would become an extremely successful newspaper and would shoot Franklin into the public eye. Despite going on to become a prominent politician, scientist and philosopher, Franklin always felt his roots were in the printing industry. Even in his final days, Franklin continued to sign his correspondence with ‘B. Franklin, Printer’. But, in fact, Franklin’s printing days would prove to be just the catalyst to a long and fruitful career that would make Franklin one of the most respected and listened to men during the nation’s early and crucially significant years.
Benjamin Franklin The Founding Father Gets His Start
Like this article? Share it with your friends
He was the fifteenth of seventeen children and his father didn’t have enough money to send him to school, but that didn’t stop Benjamin Franklin from becoming one of the most prominent figures in early American history. As one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S., Franklin was also an entrepreneur, inventor and writer whose legacy would leave a lasting impact the world over.
Born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts, Franklin was the son of Josiah Franklin, a candle and soap maker who hailed from England, and Abiah Folger, Josiah’s second wife. The family was not a wealthy one; Franklin was allowed to attend grammar school for just two years until he was 10 because it was too expensive. Although he was given some private writing and math lessons and continued to read voraciously on his own, Franklin never graduated from school.
At the age of 13, Franklin’s father sent him to apprentice for his older brother James, who was a printer and who had, at the age of 15, created the first independent newspaper in the colonies, called the New England Courant. Here, Franklin helped to compose pamphlets, set up type, sell the paper on the streets and perform other printer-related duties. Franklin also began writing columns under the pseudonym ‘Mrs. Silence Dogood’, who he fabricated to be a middle-aged widow. Dogood was an immediate hit with her writings about the problems and social conditions of women, but when James found out it was actually his younger brother writing her column, he was furious. As a result of James’ ensuing harassment and beatings, Franklin became a fugitive and ran away from his family in 1723.
Franklin tried his luck as a printer both in New York and New Jersey, but to no avail. He then moved to Philadelphia, where he did manage to find a job with a printer. But, Franklin was unsatisfied with his prospects there. After a brief stint at a printer’s shop in London, England, Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726. Four years and much borrowed money later, he had finally set up his own printing house. He began to publish a newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette, in which he would regularly give himself space to comment on the most pressing social issues of the time. He cultivated an image of himself as an intellectual and a productive young man and his writings were the beginning of what would earn Franklin significant social respect.
The Pennsylvania Gazette would become an extremely successful newspaper and would shoot Franklin into the public eye. Despite going on to become a prominent politician, scientist and philosopher, Franklin always felt his roots were in the printing industry. Even in his final days, Franklin continued to sign his correspondence with ‘B. Franklin, Printer’. But, in fact, Franklin’s printing days would prove to be just the catalyst to a long and fruitful career that would make Franklin one of the most respected and listened to men during the nation’s early and crucially significant years.
Benjamin Franklin The Founding Father Gets His Start
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
Your article on Benjamin Franklin was Very Helpful!
Thank You!
Commented on Benjamin Franklin The Founding Father Gets His Start. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
|||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
 | ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
 |
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Challenges Of Change 4 QuickBooks Blunders Intentional Leadership Integrity Breakdown, Breakthrough TeleSeminar Etiquette |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Business Plans
Top Business Plan Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
